Iran live updates: US wants China to do more to end Iran war, Rubio says

The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday morning that it launched a new wave of strikes on alleged Hezbollah targets in "several areas" of southern Lebanon.

Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health said on Wednesday that at least 2,896 people have been killed and 8,824 people wounded by Israeli strikes on the country since March 2.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon -- targeting alleged Hezbollah operatives and sites -- have continued despite a ceasefire agreement reached between Israeli and Lebanese leaders last month.

Hezbollah claimed fresh attacks on Israeli troops operating in southern Lebanon in statements issued through Wednesday and into Thursday.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) Centre on Thursday reported that a vessel anchored off the United Arab Emirates was "taken by unauthorized personnel" and subsequently began moving toward Iran's territorial waters.

The incident occurred around 38 nautical miles northeast of the UAE port of Fujairah, the UKTMO said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. would urge China to take a more assertive role in resolving the Iran conflict during a high stakes meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.

"It's in their interest to resolve this. We hope to convince them to play a more active role in getting Iran to walk away from what they're doing now and trying to do now in the Persian Gulf," Rubio said during a pre-taped interview with Fox News.

The interview was taped on Air Force One on Tuesday while Rubio and Trump were on their way to Beijing. The interview was released on Wednesday.

"We've made clear to them, you know, that any support for Iran would obviously be detrimental for our relationship. That obviously is going to come up in this conversation," Rubio said.

"Economies are melting down because of this crisis in the Strait," he added. "They're going to be buying less Chinese product and the Chinese exports are going to drop precipitously," Rubio said.

-ABC News' Mariam Khan

U.S. intelligence has made assessments that Iran has retained significant missile launch capability and access to its stockpile of missiles according to a U.S. official.

That is in line with written testimony the Defense Intelligence Agency provided to Congress weeks ago that Iran still has a significant amount of missiles and drones in the wake of U.S. operations against Iran.

"Iran retains thousands of missiles and one-way attack UAVs that can threaten U.S. and partner forces throughout the region, despite degradations to its capabilities from both attrition and expenditure," Marine Lt. Gen. James Adams wrote in the testimony at the time.

He added that Iran's conventional military remains hampered by aging equipment and limited training, likely pushing Tehran to lean even harder into asymmetric tactics.

Separately, there are internal discussions underway that if the U.S. military resumes combat operations against Iran the name of the mission could shift from "Operation Epic Fury," to Operation Sledgehammer," according to a U.S. official. The Trump administration has previously announced that it considers Operation Epic Fury to have ended.

NBC News was first to report the potential of a name change for the operation should the U.S. resume combat operations against Iran.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump said the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran "is on massive life support."

-ABC News' Luis Martinez